California Page 4

After months of uncertainty over the future of transportation funding in California, Governor Jerry Brown last week signed into law an unprecedented integrated funding program that we feel, at this early stage, is a step in right direction.

Nowhere is the relevance and importance of this urban work better illustrated than in Compton, the city in south Los Angeles that has received far more attention for the bad rather than the good in recent years. But we see great things happening in south L.A., and continue to work with our local partners there so trails, biking and walking can contribute to the city's effort to rebound.

The trails of California are as diverse as the landscape itself. From the bustling urban pathways to the lost-in-the-wild tracks of the backcountry, the vastly different settings and styles of trails in California makes them almost incomparable. So we thought we'd compare them.

The astonishing Sundial Bridge peeks out from a tall canopy of cottonwood trees as I approach Redding, Calif., on Highway 44. It looks like an enormous white harp or an egret. Designed by Spanish architect and engineer Santiago Calatrava, the eight-year-old bridge radiates over the lush green landscape, linking both sides of the Upper Sacramento River where it makes a wide turn at Turtle Bay.

The setting is perfect - the unique coastal landscape of California, the shimmering Pacific Ocean, the calm, protected waters of Monterey Bay. When it's complete, some seven years from now, the 32-mile rail-with-trail running along the coastline a short trip south from San Jose, California, will without doubt be one of the most remarkable rail-trails in the country.

When the sunset-hued Golden Gate Bridge first opened more than 75 years ago, it was the engineering marvel of its time. Just north of San Francisco's famed bridge lies an equally impressive transportation corridor for a new era. When complete, the aptly named SMART Pathway will include the most miles of bike and pedestrian trail alongside active railroad, 52, in the country.

California. It sure is a unique bird. That is doubly true when it comes to trails and active transportation planning. A massive space populated with a mixture of booming metropolises, sprawling suburbs, and sparse rural areas, the Golden State's budgetary position of late has forced locals to be creative, and determined, when it comes to building trails and safe places for people to bike and walk.

In California, bicycle transportation in the Latino community has skyrocketed over the past decade. Bicycling is an essential mode of transportation for people in working-class neighborhoods of all backgrounds; here in Los Angeles bikes have a particularly significant impact on social and economic mobility for many Latinos.

Surrounded by the majestic, snowcapped mountains of the Sierra Nevada and renowned for its clear blue water, the country's second deepest lake is surely as stunning today as when Mark Twain saw it more than a century ago. In fact, Lake Tahoe was recently deemed America's best lake by popular vote in a USA Today survey. Although dozens of tributaries flow into the lake, only one flows out, and it is along this waterway that the Truckee River Bike Trail is aligned.